Carlo Maria Martini

Carlo Maria Martini (15 February 1927-31 August 2012) was an Italian Jesuit and Cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Milan from 10 February 1980 to 11 July 2002, succeeding Giovanni Colombo and preceding Dionigi Tettamanzi.

Biography
Carlo Maria Martini was born in Orbassano, Piedmont, Italy on 15 February 1927, and he entered the Society of Jesus in 1944 and was ordained a priest on 13 July 1952. He became a successful Catholic academic, serving as rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University from 1969 to 1978 and then as chancellor. In 1979, Pope John Paul II appointed Martini Archbishop of Milan, and he became known as a liberal cardinal who called the Catholic Church "200 years out of date" and was open to the possibility of women being ordained as deacons. He also claimed that the use of contraceptives was a "lesser evil", that terminally-ill patients had the right to refuse treatment, that the Church had to admit its mistakes (including the pedophilia crisis) and make radical change, and he supported a degree of gay rights (believing that civil unions provided stability to same-sex relationships, but that a homosexual couple could never totally be a marriage).